Introduction

The aim of this guide is to give advice on how to contribute your server while playing World vs World. It will cover all the main roles and how to perform them properly.

Servers may have their own traditions and callouts not covered in this guide- however if you follow the conventions listed here you will be understood and helpful in any community.

The best way to educate yourself is through playing the game and gaining experience first hand. For a detailed guide on zerg fight gameplay see [].

Part 1: Objectives and Map Control Basics

Reporting Enemy Movement

One thing you want to do if you see any grouped enemy movement that could become a threat is to report it in team chat. Team chat broadcasts to all four maps, EBG and Borderlands. Critical objectives are: North Towers on Home Borderland, Inner Towers on EBG, any keep on Home Borderland, EBG keep and Reinforced or Fortified SMC.

Good communication requires concise information. A skeleton for a proper callout is:

It is OK to exclude or estimate some of this information, for example if there isn't one or more guilds filling a significant portion of the enemy force then leave out the guild tag. You can also add relevant information such as Siege Disabled or EWP ready. Not all things are worth defending, you do not want to report someone capturing a sentry or a ruin.

Directions are always given using cardinal directions ("north", "south", "east", "west", etc.) Towers and camps in borderlands are referred to by their position on the map; SE tower (SET), N camp, etc. while in Eternal Battlegrounds tower and camp names are used. While in Eternal Battlegrounds you can say Keep (In map chat only, not team chat) because your server only has one, while on borderlands always use a more descriptive keep name: Garri (north keep), Bay (west keep), or Hills (east keep).

Even while an objective is under attack, stay for as long as possible, reporting what siege the enemy is using and the health of gates/walls as a percentage.

These are some handy locations commonly attacked with specific names:

Watergate: Garrison's south central gate, accessed from the water.

Bay/Hills cataspot: The strength of these places is that you can hit both inner and outer walls by placing catapults on one place.

Lord Room: Where the lord and capture point resides in every keep/tower.

Garrison's outer Watergate.

Garrison's Inner Watergate.

Hills's Cataspot.

Bay's Cataspot.

Supply

Supply is the currency in WvW for building siege equipment and upgrading structures. Supply originates from supply camps and must be delivered by supply caravans to structures. Players can pick up supply from any owned camp or structure. It is generally safe to take supply from any objective, but players should take care to avoid draining supply from heavily contested objectives that need it for defense. The exception being structures that are in heavily contested areas and not expected to be held for long.
Players can carry up to 10 supply by default, there are three ways to increase this amount each by up to 5 extra supply:

The Supply Capacity WvW mastery line

An objective claimed by a guild with the Supply Capacity upgrade unlocked.

The Presence of the Keep tactic, when used on a keep with Supply Capacity aura.

Part 2: Defending Objectives

Scouting

Scouting is one of the pillars to win a matchup. The term covers both reporting intelligence in general, and also staying on a particular map or in an objective to watch for enemy movements.

People will wait inside an objective to scout it because it takes 30 seconds after an attack on an objective before the "crossed swords" contested indicator will appear on the map however a "Defend the objective" event will pop immediately when an objective is contested. The extra time can be the difference between being able to reach an objective to defend and losing it without a fight. Scouts can delay the enemy with defensive siege, traps, and siege disablers.

Sieging Up

Sieging up means to place siege on a structure to be used to repel attackers. There are three kinds of siege:

Normal

Superior

Guild

Normal siege can be acquired via Badges of Honor or at the Trading Post and are cheap. Superior is more expensive, deals 50% more damage and also costs more supply to build. Guild siege is the most expensive and deals the damage of Superior with the supply cost of Normal siege.

While every tower has its special spots, they all share a common way to be sieged up.

Trebuchet straight behind the door, as far as possible from it. This will destroy rams with 3-4 shots, also Fire Bloated Putrid Cow, if traited, will drain supplies from players. Your role at a trebuchet is to throw a Cow as the enemy comes, fire a couple of Fire (Trebuchet), and switch back to Fire Bloated Putrid Cow.

Arrow carts on the walls: this provides effective area denial and is lethal against infantry. Place these very far back on the wall, almost to the inner edge, to make it harder for enemies to destroy.

Upgrading

Objectives automatically upgrade as Dolyaks reach them. Objectives require a different amount of dolyaks to upgrade for each tier: 20 for T1, 40 for T2 and 80 for T3 for a total of 140 dolyaks to take a structure from paper to fortified.
There are three different tiers of upgrades used to describe the status of a structure:

Tier 3 (T3)/Fortified: the objective has fortified walls, gates and for keeps/SMC, a Waypoint.

Tactics and Tactivators

Tactics are divided into two types, Passive and Active, and three tiers. The tactics available are dependent on the type of objective. Tactics can be slotted into an objective once it has been claimed by the same guild for a period of time; 10min for T1, 30min for T2 and 1hr for T3. Active tactics are activated with tactivators, usually nearby the lord's room on an objective.

Standard loadouts are:

Keep

T1: Supply Drop, Hardened Gates

T2: Dragon Banner, Iron Guards

T3: Emergency Waypoint, Presence of the Keep

Tower

T1: Chilling Fog, Hardened Gates

T2: Dragon Banner, Iron Guards

T3: Emergency Waypoint, Watchtower

Camp (Typically only upgraded with one of the two)

T1: Dune Roller, Speedy Dolyaks

Part 3: Getting Involved in a Group

Builds

Before following a zerg, make sure you have a decent build. Check out our builds and pick one. If you are a sPvP/PvE player, you will instantly notice that the play style and the metas are completely different; WvW builds aim to give group support and are tankier than other game builds.

Voice Chat

Voice chat is a major tactical tool. Every server has its own TeamSpeak, Discord or Mumble server and you can easily find it by asking in team chat or visiting the server's website. There are usually channels for each map and guild. Get in the one for your commander and listen. Speaking is not required but will help. Simply by listening, you will better understand what your commander is doing and be able to react much faster with greater awareness.

Solo/Small Group

If you don't want to participate in the zerg but still want to contribute to your server on WvW there are different activities you can do:

Tour camps - You basically take all camps in the map in a circle, they will grant your server supplies and points, and prevent the enemy structures from getting supplies.

Supply customs - Sometimes a siege on an enemy structure lasts for an extended duration, at this point you want to prevent any supply caravan from entering your siege target. Capture nearby camps to stop the flow of supply completely. You can also do this with players, especially when your zerg is inside a keep and still fighting, wait outside the structure and kill anyone who tries to enter.

Contesting - Waypoints in structures will close as soon as the structure is attacked. After 3 minutes the waypoint will open again. By contesting it you deny the enemy a spawn point. Contesting can also be used to mislead the enemy about the location of your forces, however it is useless if an enemy scout sees through your trickery. In order to contest a structure it is sufficient to hit a gate once. Note that you as the attacker will see no difference until 30 seconds after, but for the opposing team the waypoint is disabled instantly. Note also that the guards at the gates can blind, so make sure you actually hit the gate.

Escorting Dolyaks

A frequent request is to "escort dollies", this is a really easy role and it basically consists of defending a supply caravan from enemies (every dolyak gets attacked by NPC enemies on its path which will slow it down), giving it Swiftness, and taking sentries on its route.

Part 4: Taking Enemy Objectives

Offensive Siege

Once you have established a group, you can make a co-oridinated effort to capture enemy objectives and increase your Point Per Tick (PPT). The only way to increase your PPT is to capture enemy objectives and hold them for your server. This is achieves through use of the afforementioned siege weaponry. Objectives have 2 means of entry- either through the destruction of the Gates, or the demolishing of the walls.

Besieging an Objective

Flame Rams are used to destroy gates, whilst Catapults or Trebuchets are used to take down walls. Both tactics have merit, with Flame Rams being the faster option, but vulnerable to door Trebuchets and Arrow Carts. Catapults and Trebuchets are slower comparatively, but significantly safer, only vulnerable to long ranged siege which can be seen coming and blocked with both Catapult skill #5 and Shield Generators. Important things to remember when attacking any objective are:

Take down enemy siege, such as Cannons, Burning Oil and Mortars.

Use Shield Generators to defend your siege

Prevent enemies from disabling your siege with projectile defense

Killing the Lord

Once you get inside, you need to take down the enemy Tower or Keep Lord. These are champion grade mobs, and hit hard against squishy characters. The best way to deal with them quickly is to remove their Break Bar. Once the lord is killed, a circle appears, requiring your server to hold until it turns to your colour. In order for it to turn to your server, there must be no enemy players or guards inside the circle, and at least one player from your server must be inside the circle and not fully defeated.

Vocabulary

WvW = short form for World vs World

Matchup/MU = World vs World is split into matchups which changes every week. During a matchup you will find yourself against two other servers. The reset time is every Friday at 20.00 (GMT+1)